Fall in the Alentejo

Although summer in the Alentejo extends well into September and October, once the hot, dry summer months have ended, it’s time to prepare for the Fall and winter months, which will include lots of rain and some cold, damp nights. I’ve been tracking the weather in the Evora Portugal area for the past several months. October’s average high temperature was 25^oC (77^oF), although we had several days in the mid to low 30^o‘s C (mid 90^o‘s F). The highest temp I recorded in October was 34^oC (94^oF). The average low was 15^oC (59^oF) but temps went down to 8^oC (mid 40^o‘s F). We had a lot of rainy days in October which is unusual. Mike and I have been traveling to Europe in October for many years before moving here and this month has almost always been perfect Fall weather (cool nights and warm days). The cloudy and rainy days continued into the first half of November. The 2nd half of November was more of what I would expect for Fall weather in this area. Warm sunny days and cool nights. November’s average high temperature was 19^oC (66^oF) which was pretty consistent throughout the month with only a few days getting into the lower 20^os C (70^os F). The average low was 9^oC (49^oF) but we did have a few days just below 4^oC (upper 30^o‘s F).

I love the way our property and this entire area looks in the Fall. There are wild flowers that grow all over the area with beautiful soft yellow flowers at the top. They also give off an amazing scent.

Another clear sign it’s Fall in the area is the change in color of the vineyards. The vines take on this rich burgundy red and mustard yellow coloring on the leaves. It just makes you want to curl up by a fire with a great glass of tinto wine from the Alentejo.

At the end of summer (early October), it was time to level the land and mow the field. We hired a local farmer with a tractor to do the job. Since it had never been done before, or at least not for some time, it was a bit pricey, but worth it to have a nice level yard. The first step of the process was the aerate the somewhat moist soil. As you can see from all the dust it kicked up, the soil was still very dry from summer. The rotating disks attached to the tractor do a great job of turning the soil. The entire process took a few days and several passes to get to this point. Once completed, you can see the rows of raised soil. This would be fine if we were going to farm the land, but since it’s basically just a lawn for now, the rows need to be flattened to make it walkable. In order to do this, the rotating blades are replaced with another device that flattens the rows of soil (see last photo in the gallery below). Right now it’s all dirt but this will soon start to grow field grass and look like a lawn. If we had sheep, this is where they would graze. We don’t plan on acquiring a flock anytime soon, so this area (as seen in the 4th and 5th photo in the gallery below) will be a small vineyard.

Daylight Savings ended October 29th in Portugal (one week earlier than the U.S.). We started the month with 11 hours and 47 minutes of daylight and ended the month with only 10 hours and 35 minutes. By the end of November we were down to 9 hours and 41 minutes of daylight. Although the days are shorter, I sort of enjoy the additional indoor time to settle into our new house and start planning for renovations and landscaping in the Spring of 2024.